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Growers are facing a wide range of supply-chain related issues this year, from new equipment and replacement parts to fertilizers and herbicides.
Glyphosate in particular has proven hard to source, not to mention being quite costly when it’s available. But when it comes to herbicides, at least, farmers do have options, and this week’s guest joins us to talk about the silver lining around the supply chain squeeze, and some strategies farmers can use to deal with their weed issues.
For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Bio Till Cover Crop Seed, Aaron Locker, Vice President of sales for HELM Agro joins us to discuss what farmers can do if they can’t get the glyphosate supply they’re used to.
No-Till Farmer podcast series is brought to you by Bio Till Cover Crops.
Bio Till Cover Crops, a pioneer and leader in cover crop seed, represent a complete lineup of seeds suitable to a wide range of soils types and growing conditions. Bio Till Cover Crop vendors are committed to your success and provide local resources, education, guidance, and all the tips and tricks we know, to ensure your plantings have the correct foundations for success. The original producers of Bounty Annual Ryegrass, Bio Till Cover Crops continue to add new and improved cover crop and forage varieties, including Enricher Radish, Bayou Kale, Shield Broadleaf Mustard, African Forage Cabbage, and Mihi Persian Clover. With over 30 years of experience in production, processing, packaging, and shipping, you won’t be able to find a better fit for your farm anywhere else.
Full Transcript
Julia Gerlach:
Welcome to the No-Till Farmer Podcast, brought to you today by Bio Till Cover Crop Seed. I'm Julia Gerlach, Executive Editor for No-Till Farmer. I encourage you to subscribe to the series which is available in iTunes, Google podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Stitcher Radio, and TuneIn radio. Subscribing will allow you to receive an alert about new episodes when they're released. I'd like to take a moment to thank Bio Till Cover Crop Seed for sponsoring today's episode.
Julia Gerlach:
Bio Till Cover Crop's a pioneer and leader in cover crop seed, represents a complete lineup of seeds suitable to a wide range of soil types and growing condition. Bio Till Cover Crop vendors are committed to your success and provide local resources, education, guidance, and all the tips and tricks we know to ensure your plantings have the correct foundations for success. The original producers of Bounty Annual Ryegrass, Bio Till Cover Crops continues to add new and improved cover crop and forage varieties, including Enricher Radish, Bayou Kale, Shield Broadleaf Mustard, African Forage Cabbage, and Mihi Persian Clover. With over 30 years of experience in production, processing, packaging and shipping, you won't be able to find a better fit for your farm anywhere else. Learn more at biotill.com. That's B-I-O-T-I-L-L.com.
Julia Gerlach:
Growers are facing a wide range of supply chain related issues this year, from new equipment and replacement parts, to fertilizers and herbicides. Glyphosate in particular has proven heart to source, not to mention being quite costly when it's available. But when it comes herbicides, at least farmers do have options, and this week's guest joins us to talk about the silver lining around the supply chain squeeze, and some strategies farmers can use to deal with their weed issues.
Julia Gerlach:
For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Podcast, brought to you by Bio Till Cover Crop Seed, Aaron Locker, Vice President in Sales for Helm Agro, joins us to discuss what farmers can do, if they can't get the glyphosate supply they're used to.
Julia Gerlach:
Welcome to the podcast Aaron. Today we're going to talk about weed control strategies, in the face of some tight herbicide supplies. Why don't you start by talking a little bit about the current supply state in the industry, and what are some common supply challenges that growers are facing right now?
Aaron Locker:
That's a great question, and one that's asked quite a bit these days. I think somebody formulated it the best, I thought. If you thought last year was a challenging year in 2021, that's proven to just be a warmup act, [crosstalk 00:02:37] 2022 has been. We continue to see challenges both in terms of not only AI or active ingredient or product availability, but then once you get the product produced, the shipping and the freight have been a challenge, and not to mention you get it over here in the States, and then finding a truck can be a challenge. And so just a whole host of issues that don't seem like they're letting up anytime soon. And I think discussions that I've been having, both in the industry and with customers, it seems like conventional wisdom is, we don't think this is going to let up anytime soon, and most likely, could progress all the way through the planting season of 2023. So I hate to be doom and gloom, but it's the world that we live in.
Aaron Locker:
But I think, the silver lining in this, is it's really taught us as an industry to plan ahead much more and much farther into our processes, than maybe we've had to do in the past. I think from a grower perspective, and even some of our retailer customers, we've grown accustomed to having product available when we needed it. And I think now that the discussions are all around planning ahead and understanding, in this case, what my weed challenges are, and then how do I cover those needs with a multitude of different chemistries.
Julia Gerlach:
Right. Okay. Yeah, it has definitely been a challenging year. So as growers are finalizing their crop protection plans for 2022, what are some strategies you see them making to navigate these issues?
Aaron Locker:
Well, I think in addition to trying to, again, plan early, like I was talking about before, I think the other thing that's really emerged is going back to basic chemistry. I've got 30, I'm going on 33 years in the business, and with that, it used to be, you just talked about maybe products and active ingredients. Now the name of the game, because of resistance, is crop groups. Our crop groups with product groups. Trying to get multiple modes of action is really, from a resistance management standpoint, what we all strive to do. And so the good news is that there are both new and maybe some older chemistries, that we can really tailor our weed control programs around, as long as we're using multiple modes of action.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And it's interesting that you bring that up. I know that there have been some interesting, I don't know, product cancellations or registration cancellations, both voluntary and also new restrictions placed on certain products, the Enlist One and Enlist Duo, those come to mind. How do those affect options going forward for growers?
Aaron Locker:
Well, let's start with the tried and true, glyphosate. Glyphosate hasn't been spared in terms of availability issues, and so it was probably all the way back to last fall people were saying, "You know what? The glyphosate that I do have, I'm going to hold that to in crop." So what that's done is left a good solid burndown program that we desperately need. That's left that a little bit more in play or in peril.
Aaron Locker:
And so luckily there's different chemistries that emerged. I know we launched a new product last year called Reviton, that's a new chemistry to the U.S. market, and specifically for that burndown segment. So it allows us to stretch the glyphosate, if we are using glyphosate in burndown, maybe we can get by with a little bit more of a reduced rate in combinations with like a Reviton, and stretch the amount that we have even further. Or, in some cases now, I'm hearing that, you mentioned Enlist, just the availability of 2,4-D in general, is a challenge right now that growers are facing. Especially when they were used to going out with that strong rate of glyphosate, plus a little bit of 2,4-D.
Aaron Locker:
So again, you've got active ingredients, like tiafenacil, that can fill those needs, and so really going after it that way. The other thing is, I think it's brought us back a little bit to our roots, to start with a good solid pre-emerge herbicide program. Or at the very least, putting down a pre-emerge herbicide followed by, maybe it's a two pronged system of two pre down, followed by a pre and a little bit of glyphosate post. And even looking into some different products and chemistries that fit those needs in the early post, that just don't solely rely on glyphosate, even in the early post segment.
Julia Gerlach:
So you mentioned Reviton and tiafenacil, is that the active ingredient in Reviton?
Aaron Locker:
Yeah. tiafenacil is the active ingredient in Reviton, and like I said, we launched that product last year, and from a burndown perspective, it's really been a godsend for a lot of growers, because it gives very fast-acting, quick knockdown, quick burn down, of a variety of broadleaf weeds and grasses, at a very low use rate. I mean, we were going out at one ounce of Reviton plus just one pound equivalent of glyphosate, and really doing a fantastic job across the board on both broadleaf and grass weed control and burn downs.
Julia Gerlach:
So talk a little bit more about glyphosate. What are some other things that growers can do if they can't get all the glyphosate that they want, in terms of using other types of tank mixed products?
Aaron Locker:
Yeah, I think if a grower can't get all the glyphosate that he wants, first step in my mind would go through looking at my rates, and maybe I can still stay within label, but maybe reduce my rate a little bit to help extend the amount of gallons that I have. And by the chemistries that we have to tank mix with glyphosate today, they can do that, like the example of Reviton that I just gave.
Aaron Locker:
The other thing you're going to have to do is really be very religious about what you're putting in, from an adjuvant standpoint. A good quality, like say an MSO type of adjuvant. You need to look at coverage and be very diligent about at least 10 gallons of water from a carrier standpoint. And not to mention the fact of making sure that if the label says, one to three to four inch weeds, that that's where you're hitting them at, as opposed to going out there and, when the weeds get any size to them, that's when you have to start increasing your labeled rate to try to get those. So there's still a lot of basic agronomic things that we've learned over the years, we've just got to get really good at in order to spread the amount of, in this case glyphosate that we have.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. There are all these different concentrations of the active ingredients out there. What is the key to understanding those application rates for glyphosate in particular, for instance?
Aaron Locker:
Well, I think from an application rate, obviously it all starts with the label, and understanding the weed size, the weed spectrum, and then making sure that we're applying it at the proper timing. All of these chemistries have been developed with years and years of research under their belt, so they work. Chances are, the environment's going to most probably more fail them than the actual chemistry would. And so we just got to make sure that we follow those.
Aaron Locker:
The other thing that I would say is, and I talked specifically or a little bit earlier, about the different product groups. And so we need to make sure from a resistance management standpoint, which that's not going anywhere soon, we need to make sure that we're, again, employing various different product groups within that burndown. Going with a, depending on the weed spectrum, maybe you're going with a little bit of glyphosate but you throw a group 15, say a Metolachlor type of product in there to get a little bit more residual, so that, again, you get into that early post timing, maybe you don't have to rely as much on a heavy rate of glyphosate at that time, because of the pre-herbicide program that you already put down.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. The many little hammers approach, right?
Aaron Locker:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Julia Gerlach:
So you mentioned real quick, you said the environment is more likely to fail than the chemistry. What do you mean by that?
Aaron Locker:
Well, and again, it's more around the timing of it, and in some cases we've learned. And again, you look at dicamba for instance, from a volatilization standpoint, we've learned that, again, we need to make sure that we've got the right adjuvants in there, and we need to make sure that we're spraying at the proper time. And that includes that we watch the wind and make sure that we don't run into offsite movement or drift issues, that we can't get the right amount of rate targeted at the right spot at the right time.
Julia Gerlach:
And then when you're adding other things to glyphosate, then that is going to effect your droplet size and your nozzle size and that sort of thing. Can you just talk about that a little bit, how all of those different things interact?
Aaron Locker:
Many of your labels will speak to also proper nozzles, and droplet sizes. I think it, again, from an application standpoint, in my mind, not only does it start with the right active ingredient based on the weed species that you're going after, but also coverage is always a key issue. And with that coverage, you get the right amount of gallons of water, or a carrier in there, and then depending on, if it's an early post-treatment, or if it's a just traditional burndown treatment, make sure that you're reading the label and understanding what nozzle types are required to get that good coverage. Especially when you're going as a burndown or a post-emerge application, you need to make sure that you're getting that good coverage on the weeds that are present, and that requires good nozzle selection as well.
Julia Gerlach:
We'll get back to the podcast in a moment, but I want to take time once again, to thank our sponsor, Bio Till Cover Crop Seed, for supporting today's episode. Bio Till Cover Crop's a pioneer near and leader in cover crop seed, represents a complete lineup of seeds suitable to a wide range of soil types and growing conditions. Bio Till Cover Crop vendors are committed to your success, and provide local resources, education, guidance, and all the tips and tricks we know to ensure your plantings have the correct foundations for success.
Julia Gerlach:
The original producers of Bounty Annual Ryegrass, Bio Till Cover Crops continues to add new and improved cover crop and forge varieties, including Enricher Radish, Bayou Kale, Shield Broadleaf Mustard, African Forage Cabbage, and Mihi Persian Clover. With over 30 years of experience in production, processing, packaging and shipping, you won't be able to find a better fit for your farm anywhere else. Learn more at biotill.com. That's B-I-O-T-I-L-L.com. And now, back to the podcast.
Julia Gerlach:
You also mentioned, you mentioned this twice now, having the proper amount of carrier or water in your mix. Can you just talk about why that's so important?
Aaron Locker:
Well, you think about it, and it's really from a science standpoint. I'm in awe of the science that we, as an industry, ag industry in general have been able to produce. I mean think about going out with one ounce per acre, even one pint of product, and expecting it to give you so many weeks of control. It's really astounding. But again, because we have those active ingredients that'll do that, we just need to make sure that we're putting them out with the right nozzles in the right coverage. Because coverage, again, whether it's even on a burndown segment or in post, either way, coverage is just so essential. Think of it as the more surface area of a weed that you cover with that active ingredient, the more efficacious it's going to be.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. Gotcha. So what if a farmer just can't get any glyphosate at all? What are you recommending in that case?
Aaron Locker:
Yeah, we've gotten a lot of questions about that too. And so if I take a step back, and like I said before, in some cases we may be forced to look back into the history books to our toolbox, and call out some of the older chemistries that, still good chemistries but we've replaced over the years. One of the things, a good recommendation that we saw last year, if you didn't have glyphosate was, again, Reviton, but then we added in, say like a clethodim. Because we knew the Reviton was going to give us that broad spectrum control of broad leaves, but we need a little extra help on grass that glyphosate would normally give of us. Well if you don't have glyphosate, something like a grass control product like a clethodim-based product, would be the next best thing.
Aaron Locker:
Then we start getting into conversations about specific weeds, problem weeds and geographies, things like mare's tail. You can't no longer go with a heavy, heavy rate of glyphosate to control like a mare's tail or a Palmer amaranth type of weed. So there, don't go that heavy rate of glyphosate, roll it back a little bit, but add in an [oxin 00:18:10] type, a 2,4-D, a dicamba, at the burndown timing to help get control of that. So now you're talking about a three-way mix of a pound of glyphosate, an ounce of Reviton, and like a pint of Dicamba or 2,4-D.
Julia Gerlach:
I see. Okay. So you had mentioned the silver lining in all of this, being sort of that we're learning to cope, I guess, is maybe how you would put it. Are there any other upsides to the situation?
Aaron Locker:
Upsides to the situation? Well, let's face it, and we joke with a lot of folks in our industry. Glyphosate has been an amazing compound, and it's really helped our industry overall, but it's also spoiled us a little bit too. For a lot of years there, it was easy to press that easy button, if you will, and get the control. And so I think what this has done is, you really see the good agronomists shine through. And it doesn't really matter whether you're talking at the grower level or a retailer level, having good agronomists that understand chemistries and understand, okay, the tools that we have available, all of them, both old and new, as well as managing at the same time resistant weeds, but at the end of the day coming up with good solid recommendations, to get good solid weed control, I think those agronomists are really shining through. Because we need that in this, and I think it's really even some of the younger folks that haven't been in the industry very long but that only knew glyphosate, it's even challenged them to go back into the history books a little bit, and get schooled on what different combinations and chemistries that are available to the grower.
Julia Gerlach:
So I wanted to ask a little question about the supply, because of course we heard about there was a hurricane, there was the force majeure that Bayer dealt with, so that definitely was impacting the glyphosate market. I was looking at the China price in index toward the end of March, and the price trends of glyphosate and glufosinate, were both actually coming down, glufosinate more so than glyphosate, due to some ramp-up in supply, I gather, in China. So I'm curious about how long it takes for those price decreases at that sort of active ingredient level, to the point where the farmers would see that coming back down.
Aaron Locker:
I think you're right, because we see the same things and hear the same things from our folks in China, and that's to be expected, this time of year. Once now we're in season, or in the Midwest here, we're pretty close to being in season, and so it's this basic supply and demand. Now you've got a little less demand because you've pumped out everything that you can in front of the season, and you'll get a little bit of that softness. What we're seeing though is based on some of the inert ingredients, that are still going to be tight. When I said earlier that we expect this tightness to remain all the way through, probably as much as Q1, Q2 of next year, it's as largely about the inert ingredients as it is about the active ingredients.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay.
Aaron Locker:
Because you're right. Some of these active ingredients have come down, and yet the inert ingredients that have to go into those formulations are still, in many cases, hard to find.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, isn't that interesting?
Aaron Locker:
Yeah. You talk about out these black swan events, and whether it's, like you mentioned, the hurricanes, and all these things converging on each other this year. And now, what's happening is you've got a continuation of COVID related issues. There was a report just recently that in some of the main production provinces of China, Shanghai being one of them, are locking down significant portions of those provinces, because they're seeing continued spikes of COVID. Well when your province is locked down, that means nothing's going in and nothing's coming out. So we still see a lot of that continuing, and that's why I say it's going to continue probably for the foreseeable future.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. Okay. So as growers get through this season and then they prepare for 2023, as you say, these supply chain issues may continue to go on. So what advice, besides what we've already talked about, pre planning and all of those things, what other advice would you give growers as they prep for the years ahead?
Aaron Locker:
Have a good solid plan. Understand, we talked a lot about obviously today about weed control. Know what's out in your field and have a good solid plan for it. If you've got these weed species, really be diligent about recording them down, and then talking with your retailer about, okay, what are some alternative plants, and then coming up with maybe a couple of different ways to skin those cats, so to speak, so that we have some flexibility built in on the front side. And then we're not totally reliant on just solely glyphosate, like we have been. Continue to look for new chemistries that are coming out that can help us, like, we mentioned Reviton. We came out with another one called Katagon, which is an early post grass and broadleaf product in corn, that you don't even need glyphosate.
Aaron Locker:
So continue to search and ask your retailer and manufacturers about what new do we have, the new tools that we could put in the toolbox. And then lastly, once you got that plan, then make sure that your supply plan is in place as early as you can. And definitely what we found were, growers that really understood that early, by and large got their needs covered, back as early as last fall, versus folks that waited, and now they're scrambling in some cases. So [inaudible 00:25:05] get your supply plan and done early with your retailer, because then what that does, is it sets that same supply plan all the way up the supply chain, all the way back to the manufacturer. Because right now we're having those same discussions for 2023, with our customers right now.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And now, here's a question that's a little bit different. A lot of the no-tillers that we work with, they grow cover crops, for various different reasons. In some cases it's to help with weed control, sometimes it's for grazing, sometimes it's for soil health reasons, and a lot of them do use herbicides to burn those down at some point during the year. Are there any concerns about herbicide resistance in cover crops?
Aaron Locker:
I haven't heard of any herbicide resistance in cover crops popping up yet, not to say that it couldn't. Again, I think it gets back to how diligent we are about using multiple modes of action on the front side, and learning from our resistance issues of the past. It's interesting on cover crops, because we had a whole test protocols out last year, because what happens on cover crops. So we got those established, they've got great benefits, don't get me wrong, but then we as growers want to go out there as early as we can, and get those cover crops burned off. So then we get in the field, early as we can. Well, what that means is, more often than not, it's a little colder than normal, and if we are using glyphosate, the help takes a little longer than normal, because it is cold. Again, that was another thing that we found with Reviton. Adding an ounce Reviton in that glyphosate, really speeded that activity up, and got the control we needed. But in the cover crop example, got us into the field that much quicker.
Julia Gerlach:
I see. Now that's interesting. Okay. Yeah, I hadn't thought of that. So I guess, unless there's anything else that you wanted to talk about, I'm curious what's on the horizon for Helm Agro around potential weed control options?
Aaron Locker:
That's a great question. Like I said, we launched about five new products last year in the weed control arena, and if I look in the pipeline, we've got variations of some of these new chemistries that I talked about, coming out. Again, as really some good solutions to manage resistance, but then also really come up with better solutions to control some of our tougher weeds, like the water hemps, the Palmers, Italian ryegrass in the south has been becoming a larger and larger problem.
Aaron Locker:
And so you're always having the different weeds come to the surface in terms of being issues, and that's really what Helm is focused on. We're a 120 year old family owned business, and so we think of ourselves a lot like the family owned business of a lot of growers that we work with. And so we know what it's like to make sure that we're looking ahead for the generations to come and say, "What do we need to have, and what tools and solutions do we need to have, to continue to stay ahead of the challenges that weed control brings?"
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. Okay. Well, I guess one final question. There are, of course, people out there who would say, "We shouldn't be using any chemicals at all." What do you say about that?
Aaron Locker:
Well, I think, in the U.S., we enjoy the safest and most abundant food supply on the planet. And when somebody asks me, what do I do for a living, what I say is, "I help feed the world." And I really mean that, because both not only volume wise but at a safety factor that is unmatched by anybody else. I think based off of the science that's involved and coming up with those safer products, to grow that safe food supply, I think that is the key, and something that is very core to our business in agriculture. So, I think it's, again, it's definitely preference, and if somebody wants access to organic food, they have it, which is great. Again, in our food supply. So you have choice, but I think it all, again, it goes back down to, the key is across the board, we have a very, very safe food supply that we enjoy.
Julia Gerlach:
Thanks to Vice President of Sales for Helm Agro, Aaron Locker, for these tips on changing up your no-till weed management strategies to cope with lower glyphosate supplies.
Julia Gerlach:
To listen to more podcasts about no-till topics and strategies, please visit notillfarmer.com/podcasts. Once again, we'd like to thank our sponsor, Bio Till Cover Crop Seed, for helping to make this No-Till Podcast series possible. If you have any feedback on today's episode, please feel free to email me at jgerlach@lessitermedia.com, or call me at 262-777-2404. If you haven't done so already, you can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify or Google podcasts, to get an alert as soon as future episodes are released. You can also keep up on the latest no-till farming news by registering online for our No-Till Insider daily and weekly email updates, and Dryland NoTiller e-Newsletter, and be sure to follow us on Twitter, at No-Till Farmr with farmer spelled F-A-R-M-R, and our No-Till Farmer Facebook page. For our entire staff here at No-Till Farmer, I'm Julia Gerlach. Thanks for tuning in.
